Fruit pitter



Oct. 18, 1938. r h o. STEINWANDI 8 FRUIT PITTER Filed March 15, .1957

IN VENTOR OTTQ 8 TE IN WAND.

Patented Oct. 18, 1938 UNITED STATES PATIENT OFFICE FRUIT PITTER OttoSteinwand, San Francisco, Calif; assignor to Sussman, Wormser & Co, SanFrancisco, Calif., a corporation of California Application March 15,1937, Serial No. 130,836

4 Claims. (Cl. 146-19) This invention relates to fruit pitting andslicters itself within the notches 8 and I2, and is ing mechanisms, andparticularly to devices for forced out through the hole I3, leaving thehalves simultaneously pitting and halving such fruit of the fruitimpaled on the prongs 10. as cherries, apricots, plums and the like.Where a fruit pitter of the type here described Among the objects of myinvention are: To is used on'spheroidal fruit, such as cherries or 5provide a mechanism which will simultaneously the like, but the fruit isnot split, it is possible pit and slice small fruits; to provide adevice of to use a stationary stripper through which the the characterdescribed which will positively dispitting knife is retracted in orderto remove the charge the halves of the fruit into a suitable refruitfrom the knife, and the fruit may be made 10 ceiver; and to provide adevice which, while sav' to roll into a suitable receiver. Where thefruit 10 ing one operation in the processing of the fruit, has beensplit, however, the halves will not roll does not, by so doing,complicate the operation satisfactorily, and an ejector mechanism fordiswhich is made to perform the joint function. charging the fruit intothe receiver is necessary Other objects of my invention will be apparforsatisfactory operation. In accordance with ent or will be specificallypointed out in the the present invention the ejector mechanism is 15description forming a part of this specification, constructed asfollows:. but I do not limit myself to the embodiment of The splittingblade 5 is provided with a prothe invention herein described, as variousforms jecting wing 14, and in this wing, adjacent the may be adoptedwithin the scope of the claims. top of the holder, is formed a slot I5.

30 Referring to the drawings: The ejector itself is preferably formedfrom Figures 1 and 2 are fragmentary views of a a strap l6 of sheetmetal. It has a straight fruit pitter of conventional type, equippedwith portion materially longer than the head 3, in a pitting knife ofthis invention, Figure 1 showing Which t er s formed a S l1 ough whichthe knife and pitting prongs viewed edge-on, the wing l4 passes,permitting the ejector to be while Figure 2 shows a side view of theknife, held in frictional contact with the head by a re- 25 Theinvention is used in combination with a silient band which consists of acoiled spring fruit pitter of conventional type, wherein a slid- 3 whoseends engage the e d of a Strap and ing spindle l is reciprocally mountedin a bearpr ss it a nst the i r- The strap 19 passes ing carried by theframe 2, and has, mounted through the SlOt in the Wing of the knife, t s

on it end, knif h lder 3, being retained in position as the ejectorslides 30 In the form of the device here shown the knife beneath it.

holder 3 is slotted at its opposite sides and lower e upp r d 0 0f eejector is bent back ends, as shown by the dotted line 4, to receive atan obtuse angle o e S t P t the butt end of the fruit pitting andsplitting and is perforated or slotted at 22 to embrace the blade 5.This blade is brazed or otherwise firmly S f The l we e d 23 0 theejector is bent 35 and permanently secured in the holder, although backa down, and is p ded W h n aperit is clear that it could be removablyfastened ture 24, ec g with the slot [1, throu in place were this deemeddesirable. The cut- Which aperture the blade 5 and the p s ting edge 1of the blade is convex or generally P s pointed in form, but where thetip of the blade Because it is held frictionally against the head 40would otherwise be there'is formed an edged 3 the ejector Will mOVe up awn With the not h 8, The blade is wide in comparison ith head as long asit meets no obstruction. When the fruit t be pitted, the device is inuse, however, and the knife is Mounted on each side of the not h, d h dadvancing, the recurved portion 23 of the ejector in place by set-screws9, is a pitting prong I0. Strikes the p of the fruit and d pward 45These prongs are slender and may either be Wlth respect to the knife andshaft as the knife sharply pointed or, preferably, may be made ofadvances pitting and splitting the fruit, leaving fishtail shape asshown, with .a notch H! the two halves imp l up h p n s l0. As alignedwith the notch 8 of the splitting blade, the shaft is retracted theejector follows it until the bottoms of the notches in the prongsextendthe upper end 20 strikes the frame 2, which acts ing somewhatbelow the bottom of the notch in as a stop. The retractive movement ofthe shaft the blade, however. continuing, the ejector is slid along it,thus forc- The fruit is positioned beneath the knife in a ing the twohalves off the prong and finally, when rubber cup II, and as the knifedescends it splits the head reaches its upper position, the end thefruit in half. At the same time the pit cen- 20 is gripped between thestop 2 and the head .the ejector end occurs.

3, and. the ejector pivots upon the corner of the head, throwing thelower end of the ejector sharply to the left as viewed in Figure 2, andthrowing the halves of the fruit in that direction and into a suitablereceiver. Since reciprocating heads of machines of this character arealmost universally spring-retracted, this action takes place at highspeed, and the fruit is thrown off in a definite trajectory since itdoes not have the time to fall an appreciable distance from the prongsbefore the forward or outward motion of The presence of the ejector doesnot complicate the operation of the machine or increase the duties ofthe operator in any way.

I claim:

1. In a fruit pitter having a shaft carrying areciprocating head forforcing a pit through and out of the fruit, the combination on said headof a blade wider than the fruit to be pitted and having a notch at thetip thereof, a pair of prongs extending substantially parallel with saidblade on. either side thereof and substantially alined with said notch,and means for forcing the halves of therpitted fruit downwardly off ofsaid prongs and then forwardly to clear said blade, said meanscomprising an element having a portion parallel to the plane of movementof said reciprocating head and shaft, a portion extending obliquelytherefrom and around said shaft, a second portion recurved toward saidshaft and adapted to engage fruit on said blade and prongs, saidobliquely extending element being positioned to be engaged by saidreciprocating head during retraction thereof to cause movement of saidrecurved portion normal to the plane of movement of said reciprocatinghead.

2. The combination with a fruit pitting machine including a slidingshaft reciprocably mounted in a frame and carrying a knife-holding head,of a pitting knife mounted on said head, and a fruit ejector comprisinga strap of stiff material having a flat portion parallel to said shaftand having its upper end projecting back at an obtuse angle from saidflat portion and embracing said shaft between said frame and head andits lower end also bent back and embracing said knife, and resilientmeans for holding said strap in frictional engagement with said head, somounted and arranged that upon advance of said shaft the lower end willbe engaged by the fruit and the ejector slid along said shaft to permitthe knife to enter the fruit, and on retraction of said shaft the upperend of the ejector will engage the frame to force the fruit downward offof the knife and forward to discharge.

3. In a device of the class described, a framework having a journal, areciprocable shaft slidable in said journal, a head mounted on saidshaft, an ejector comprising a portion parallel to said shaft, aresilient band frictionally but slidably retaining said parallel portionagainst said head, an end portion projecting obliquely from saidparallel portion to embrace said shaft between said journal and saidhead, and a second end portion recurved beyond said head, and a stop sopositioned on said framework with respect to said head and saidprojecting ejector portion that retraction of said shaft will engagesaid obliquely projecting portion between said stop and head to tiltsaid ejector.

4. In combination with a fruit pitter mechanism including areciprocating head, a flat knife blade carried thereby, said bladehaving a portion adjacent said head that is wider than the fruit to bepitted and having side cutting edges sloping toward a common point atthe fruit engaging end of said flat knife blade, an inverted V-shapednotch at the tip of said blade to provide an entering wedge for eachcutting edge to facilitate the slicing of such fruit, and a pair ofprongs extending in the same general direction as the point of theknife, one of said prongs being on each side of said blade and closelyadjacent thereto, each terminating in a notch in alinement with saidfirst mentioned notch and extending slightly in advance of said flatknife blade to provide in combination with the notch .portion of saidblade means for centering and expelling the pit from said fruit.

OTTO STEINWAND.

